We first heard about Qello Concerts a couple weeks ago, when they were announced as presenting partners of the Participation Row charity collective at the 2015 Lockn‘ Music Festival. The concert streaming app shared a video playlist featuring a vast majority of the performers at Lockn’, picking out exceptional clips both old and new. With choice selections that even included a version of “New Speedway Boogie” from a Grateful Dead show on the Festival Express, naturally, I had to investigate further.
The website claims to offer “the world’s largest collection of full-length concerts and music documentaries streamed on-demand to just about any digital device.” After browsing the site’s archives, we’re certainly convinced of Qello’s claims.
Not knowing where to start, my first instinct was to check out the “Qello TV” section. Here, Qello has laid out 34 unique stations, organized by genre, with a curated playlist running for each of them. I clicked on channel 417, Jam Bands, and was greeted with a version of “Smokestack Lightning” by Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit. With “Franklin’s Tower” by Phil Lesh & Friends and “Space Wrangler” by Widespread Panic in queue, this was a good place to be.
The “largest collection” must be quite massive, considering there are 34 stations available!
After checking that out, I felt like listening to some rock and roll, so I searched The Who. The search menu displayed the band’s Artist Page, some popular live concerts, tracks, and documentaries. One more click, and Roger Daltrey was singing “Out here in the fields…” while swinging around his microphone like a madman. Oh yeah… life is good.
Qello keeps getting better, as the app can be used on an array of devices, including laptops, smart phones, tablets, Roku, gaming devices, and smart TVs. Priced at $4.99/month or $44.99/year, a modest subscription unlocks access to an impressive array of concert and documentary footage.
The site offers a free 7-day subscription code, but if you head to their website and use the promo code “L4LM”, you can access all of this content, for free, for 30-days! That’s a whole month of All Access content, just for typing in four letters. Not too shabby, eh?
Check it out and let us know what you think, and be sure to say hi to the fine folks at Qello if you’re heading to Lockn’ Festival this weekend.